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"...and everything was fine until this thing popped out," Wynonna recounted. The brown-eyed woman in front of her leaned closer, completely enthralled.
"What was it?" Reina encouraged.
"Dolls is doing some research, but we don't know."
"Can you describe it?" Her tone was impatient, eagerly awaiting further explanation. Wynonna had told her friend all of her revenant stories over the time they'd known each other. Since she was inexplicably trustworthy to the heir, Dolls begrudgingly accepted her as part of the support team. Wynonna had yet to let her out in the field.
But none of the other stories involved demonic animals, only demonic humans.
"Rey," Wynonna started.
"Please?"
"Reina."
"What?" She exhaled sharply.
"Your elbow's in your eggs. And I didn't get a good look, it was dark. All I know is it was scary as fuck and bigger than a dog."
Reina sheepishly removed her arm from the now severely smushed omelet before wiping grease and pepper from it with a napkin. Wynonna's famous grin stood in place of laughter.
Upon noticing the bandages around Wynonna's neck, Reina gingerly reached out to touch them. "Did it do this?" she asked, an edge of anger to her voice.
Wynonna didn't bother to swat her hand away. "No shit. It almost killed Dolls too, but I shot it." Her clear blue eyes squinted against the morning light as she noticed a band-aid, barely visible, covering her friend's upper lip. "What happened there?"
"Oh!" Reina withdrew her arm, face flushing a dark red. "I uh- definitely didn't get into a bar fight." She rushed through her sentence and put on an exaggeratedly sweet smile, hoping Wynonna didn't hear her.
"What." Not receiving an explanation, Wynonna stared the taller woman down, Reina growing more uneasy with each passing second. Finally, she repeated herself. "What?"
"Ugh! Fine, you win," Reina sighed. "Last night. Some bitch started flirting with this guy I-" She cut off and cleared her throat. "..yeah. Anyway he left with her instead. She was really hot, I don't blame him."
"That doesn't sound like much of a fight."
"I'm not done. So he left and I was in a pissy mood. The girl's friend came over and offered to buy me a drink, so that was going well."
"Skip to whoever the fuck hurt you?"
"Right. A creepy dude who's always hanging out at the bar started hitting on the girl I was talking to and she looked so uncomfortable that I fought him."
"So you describe everything in detail except the fight?"
"I hit him, he hit me, I accidentally knocked him out. Lucy didn't seem to mind too much. Have you ever had a one night stand turn into a second date?"
"Okay, don't need to hear about your love life."
"You mean the second it involves girls you 'don't need to hear about it.' How would you help Waverly if she was having problems when you can't even take the matter seriously?"
Wynonna looked hurt. "I can handle it-"
"The sooner you accept the fact that gay relationships are just as legitimate as straight ones, the better."
"I never thought otherwise!"
"You flinch whenever Waves and Nicole kiss."
"Waverly is my sister, I don't want to see that."
Reina's eyebrow lifted, doubt written across her features. "That's not the only reason. Thanks for breakfast." With that, she stood and walked out, leaving behind a practically untouched plate of food. Wynonna heard her car start up moments later, and the crunch of tires on gravel.
~
The whole team was assembled in the Earp living room early in the afternoon. Sunlight filtered through the blinds, illuminating the dust in the air. Wynonna and Waverly shared a sofa with Doc and Dolls on the other. Nicole leaned with her forearms against the top of her girlfriend's seating arrangement, inches away from her. Reina hovered halfway between the younger Earp and the front door. All eyes were on Dolls.
"I officially don't know what we're dealing with," he admitted. Doc scoffed, making his opinion clear. He hadn't thought the animal was anything but an overgrown mutt to begin with.
"Maybe it was a one time thing? Or maybe it only shows up in the dark?" Waverly offered. Reina snorted, earning a glare from both Waverly and Nicole. "What?"
"No offense, but I don't think werewolves are real."
"I never said it was a werewolf." Waverly's tone, however, implied there was a chance that had been one of the thoughts to cross her mind.
"You're right, I'm sorry," the newbie replied sincerely. "But I think I might have an idea."
Dolls lifted his head, tilting it slightly forward to acknowledge that it was her turn to speak.
"Can you describe it again?"
"Furry. Color looked like a Doberman, but it was too big to be a dog. Too thin to be a bear. Red eyes and sharp teeth," he supplied.
Reina seemed to focus on his every word, pacing as she thought. After a solid minute she stopped. "I've read about stuff like this. If the revenants come from hell, maybe other things do too."
Waverly jumped right on board. "Like Cerberus! But with less heads. Or the chupacabra."
"Right." Reina nodded in agreement, beaming. One of the many reasons she got along better with Waverly than Wynonna: they were consistently on the same page. Wynonna liked to call it the Nerd Frequency.
"So you're saying what exactly?"
"Maybe it's a demon dog. Or a hellhound, yeah, that sounds better." Waverly radiated excitement. "I know at least ten ways to bring it down."
"Let's hear it." Dolls gestured for her to continue.
"Silver-" Waverly was cut off.
"Killing it won't get rid of it," Reina interrupted. After saying that she gave Waverly an apologetic smile. Waverly considered her statement.
"Okay, no silver. Hellhounds are usually commissioned to protect things. Like supernatural 'secrets' and graveyards," she air quoted the word secrets. "We need to find the person who brought this one to Purgatory and break whatever they bound the hound to." Waverly smiled, proud of her accidental rhyme and her inherent knowledge of the supernatural.
"How will we know what to break?" Wynonna finally spoke, directing the question to both her sister and Dolls.
"It'll have some sort of rune carved or painted on it," Waverly answered first. "And it'll probably be silver."
"What's with all the silver?" Doc butted in.
"A lot of demons can't touch silver." It was Dolls's turn to answer. "Except revenants. The object's probably in the warehouse." He turned to speak to Wynonna. "It's guarding Peacemaker."
